Do you take more risks when you’re with your friends? I know
a ton of adults who think we do, and when I see we I mean teenagers. In the
article above it talks about a study done that states that teenagers take more
risks, especially dangerous risks, when they are with their friends. Adults
don't have the same tendencies, and I know you might say that's because they
don't have any friends but obviously that's not true 'cause then there would be
a bunch of lonely old people moping around all the time. The thing is that they
don't find the need to impress their peers. Impress. That's the main reason why
we take more risks around our friends. Now don't feel ashamed or stupid or even
angry at yourself or others, we all do it all the time. Peer pressure goes along
with trying to impress your peers. We feel like we have this immense weight on
our shoulders to take a chance, do something crazy and unpredictable so they
won't get bored with us and they will still or start think that we are super
cool.
Peer pressure can lead us to do dumb irresponsible things
that we wouldn't normally do. When I was still in elementary school I was a quiet,
shy good girl that always tried to get her work done fast so I could color or
talk to the friend sitting next to me. And then my group of friends started
talking louder, saying mean stuff, pushing people down, and just being bullies.
At the time I didn't know what to do, should I stick to my normal goody two
shoes routine or should I be like my friends who were labeled the 'cool kids'?
I bet you can guess what choice I made, I took the road most commonly taken and
I just know that Robert Frost would have been ashamed. I succumbed to the
pressure my friends were putting on me and starting acting just like them, and
usually I was ten times worse. I was one of the loudest, meanest, reckless
bullies in the school. I did it for the title and how no one seemed to mess
with me. But also a lot of people didn't want to hang out me but at the time I
didn't care. After the peer pressure wore off and they eventually backed off I
started to calm down but it felt like an adrenaline rush, it felt good to be
mean and I never thought of the consequences. I feel bad at what I did because my so called friends pressured me to do, but I'm not blaming them at all. It was 100% my fault for 'going with the flow'.
So, back to the original question; do you take risks when you are with your friends? Yes you do. Will you actually admit it? Probably not. Do you feel better that you understand that you're not the only one? Hopefully. Do believe me?
